Wanderings in Spain. London: Ingram, Cooke and Co, 1853. First English Edition. Publisher’s brown cloth boards, with a floral motif stamped in blind to covers & in gilt to spine. A nice bright copy.

Presented to Sean T. O’Ceallaigh, Second President of Ireland by Sir Alfred Chester Beatty. 

Seán T. O’Ceallaigh (1882-1966),was  a founding father of the Irish state and its second President.

Born in America, Chester Beatty became a naturalized British citizen and later, one of Ireland’s most revered cultural benefactors. He settled in Ireland in 1950 and was made an Irish citizen in 1957. By the time of this gift (which likely occurred sometime after 1950, given O’Ceallaigh’s presidency from 1945-1959), Beatty was a resident of Dublin and a figure of immense cultural authority. His library, now the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, is one of the most important collections of manuscripts and rare books in the world. His choice of this particular work—a travelogue of Spain—is intriguing. Beatty had a deep appreciation for Islamic and European manuscript art, and a book on Spain, a cultural crossroads, would have resonated with his collecting interests.